Five-run fourth lifts Dodgers over Mets

Jul 22, 2007 - 12:03 AM
LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers scored five
times in the fourth inning en route to an 8-6 victory over the
New York Mets on Saturday.

Matt Kemp highlighted the fourth-inning outburst with a
three-run homer and Los Angeles starter Brad Penny settled down
after a rocky start to help the Dodgers avoid their third
straight loss at home to the Mets.

Penny (12-1) gave up four runs in the first three innings, then
pitched well the rest of the way. In his final 3 1/3 innings,
he held the Mets scoreless on two hits, retiring seven in a row
at one point.

"I gave up the runs early, and (my teammates) came back and
scored," Penny said. "You've got to just go out there and keep
going."

The righthander pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing six hits, two
walks and striking out five. The last Dodgers pitcher to begin
a season 12-1 was Phil Regan, who started 14-1 in 1966.

The Dodgers were trailing, 4-1, when they batted around against
Mets starter Jorge Sosa (7-5) in the fourth. After Jeff Kent
flied out to start the inning, seven of the next eight batters
recorded hits.

Andre Ethier drove in the first run with a single, then Kemp
connected for a three-run shot to left-center field, his sixth
of the year, to put the Dodgers in front, 5-4.

"It was a slider, first pitch, and he left it up a little bit,"
Kemp said. "I knew what to do with it."

Juan Pierre, who recorded two hits and two RBI, drove in the
final run of the frame with a double.

Joe Beimel relieved Penny with one out and runners on first and
third in the seventh inning and got pinch hitter Paul Lo Duca to
ground into an inning-ending double play after a 10-pitch
at-bat.

Beimel, however, served up Carlos Beltran's 18th homer of the
season, a two-run shot that pulled New York within 8-6, in the
eighth inning.

Jonathan Broxton struck out David Wright and Carlos Delgado to
end the frame, then pitched a perfect ninth inning to earn his
second save.

"Broxton's automatic, just like (closer Takashi) Saito," Kemp
said. "He's always money, and he did the job again."

Sosa held the Dodgers hitless for the first two innings but gave
up a run in the third when Penny doubled and came around to
score on Pierre 's single. He was pulled after the fourth,
having surrendered six earned runs on eight hits.

"I left all of my pitches up in the strike zone," Sosa said
through an interpreter. "As a pitcher, when you make those
kinds of mistakes and you're facing a team like the Dodgers ...
you're going to pay."

Los Angeles added two insurance runs in the sixth, thanks to
some shaky defense by the Mets. After reliever Scott
Schoeneweis loaded the bases with one out, Joe Smith came in to
face Russell Martin and induced what looked to be an
inning-ending double-play grounder. But second baseman Ruben
Gotay threw wildly to first, allowing two runs to score.

The Mets jumped in front with two runs in the second on Ramon
Castro's sacrifice fly and Lastings Milledge's RBI single.

New York extended its lead in the third when Wright followed up
Beltran's two-out single by smacking Penny's 0-2 offering over
the center field wall for his 18th home run.